Jordan Peele’s Get Out scores big with five Independent Spirit nominations

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Jordan Peele’s debut creep-fest Get Out took another big step toward critical staying power today, picking up five nominations for this year’s just-announced Film Independent Spirit Awards — including one for Best Feature.

Peele’s racially tinged horror tale, which carries the idea of cultural appropriation to the most literal of all possible conclusions, joined crime drama Good Time with five nominations.

The pair came through second only to coming-of-age love story Call Me by Your Name, which picked up six nominations. Get Out and Call Me by Your Name each received Best Feature nods; Good Time picked up its nominations in other categories.

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As Entertainment Weekly noted, the Spirit Awards are increasingly taking on an unspoken designation as a fairly reliable barometer of what to expect when Oscar season hits.

“The Indie Spirits’ best feature winner has corresponded with the Academy’s top honoree for four consecutive years, beginning with 12 Years a Slave in 2013,” EW observed.

What that means for fans of Peele’s directorial bow is still uncertain; Spirit Awards winners won’t be announced until March 3 of next year.

But the film resonated at the box office, banking $250 million globally on a super-light production budget of just $5 million. That’s a return that had Get Out positioned to become the fastest-grossing R-rated horror film ever to run in North America … until a little movie called ITcame along just a few months later.

Two other horror films also picked up Spirit Awards nods this year: David Lowery’s A Ghost Story and Michael O’Shea’s The Transfiguration, each of which was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award — a category for films with sub-$500,000 production budgets.